when i dreamed of you
by amaerior
Summary: Lloyd wasn't quite sure how it happened, but when a string of mysteriously unfortunate events began occurring, he was sure something was wrong. But when he finds out what links them together, it's up to him and the ninja to save Ninjago—or to save the thing that could most possibly be the source of their downfall. It's up to his head—or his heart. !OCs needed, look inside for info!
1. when the fire came

**_Whew! Alright, it's been quite a while since I've updated this story. I left it untouched for a while due to lack of review, but I'm gonna kick this old goat back up again._**

**_ABOUT OCS;;_**

**_I need quite a few OC's in this story, mind, and they can pretty much be anything, as long as they're submitted by YOU. They can be paired up with the ninja, or have elemental powers—and yes, you can submit multiple OC's. Just PM me! Leaving a review's also fine.  
_**

* * *

_The girl's figure is just silhouetted against the dying sunset, and her hair blows in the light breeze that carries around the place Kai stands at. His feet crunch through rubble as he walks cautiously towards her, through a broken city with shattered walls and buried sins. Clouds whip across the sky above his head, carried by the wind that is slowly picking up, ripping at his scarlet clothing. He draws back a hand, intending to jerk up his crimson hood over his spiky hair, but the sheer force of the wind and his harsh tugs produce a ripping sound, and he pulls his hand away with a scrap of red fabric.  
_

_Red like blood, he thinks, finally pulling up his hood over his spiky hair. Red like fire._

_The red ninja's vision flickers for the briefest moment, and Kai sees her from a different place. He stands on empty space in front of her, seeing her lips part slightly and her distant eyes look at him for the briefest moment before she looks away, as if he was invisible (as if he didn't exist). He looks over the girl's shoulder, to see a city with high walls built in the hills and in that moment, he watches a plume of fire explode from the hills. He watches the walls crumble, shattering, falling down around the city. Long fingers of fire wave at him from above, and great clouds of smoke and fire form above, filling the air with hazy ash that burns his lungs with each inhalation he painfully draws, and he coughs once, twice, trying to rid himself of the discomfort.  
_

_The girl turns around, and he sees the side of her face as she watches the city - for some reason, Kai knows it's her city, and he watches her as she watches her city burn and fall and he watches her scream, mouth wide-open and tears slowly rolling down her face and he just stands there and watches her scream as she watches her life crumble into ash and fire and scorched flesh, burned bones and soot and wisps of smoke that fall and rise, slowly drifting away.  
_

_And it rains._

_It rains red, and the last thing Kai thinks is 'red. Red like fire."_

He wakes with a start, a gasp escaping from his lips. He looks up towards the window to see it's still night, the stars glimmering coldly in the misty night sky. He sits up, breathing heavily, raking a hand through his tousled hair and listening to the pounding sounds of his own heart, his gasps of breath, the creaking of the wooden bedframe beneath him.

"Kai, are you okay?" He jumps a little, before he looks up to see Cole gazing down at him from the top bunk. Cole's originally silvery-grey eyes reflect the night in a shade of velvet indigo so dark it could be black, but they are as soft and considering as a summery evening. He pauses. His dream isn't important. Kai sighs as he flops back onto his pillows, pulling his covers over his scarlet nightshirt again—he'd kicked them off at some point.

"Thanks, Cole. I'm okay." He rolls over, and as he pulls the blankets over his head he hears Cole one last time before he, too rolls over to sleep more. He probably wasn't planning to wake up before daybreak (just like Kai.)

"Nothing else in this world, Kai." The earth ninja's voice whispers into the night.

* * *

Morning comes too soon for Kai. He stumbles up out of bed when the ancient alarm clock rings, grumbling and moaning; night was not kind to the fire ninja. Kai's dreams were plagued by screams and dark shapes of rushing people, but every time when he thinks he's escaped Kai sees the girl again, her lips slightly parted as her eyes stare in the distance. Sometimes her lips move, but Kai is always too far away to hear her. Every time, he runs towards her. She holds the answers, but fate dangles them temptingly in front of Kai's face and he can't reach them. When he is just feet away, separated by only screens of smoke and dust, she turns to look at him. Her irises are pure black, just like her pupils and as he comes closer to look he realizes there's no white of her eyes; it's all just black and pupil unlike his fiery amber eyes or Lloyd's green or Cole's ever-changing silvery-grey. It's not like Zane's crystalline blue or Jay's sapphire orbs, not like Nya's warm brown or Sensei's liquid golden like light itself.

Her eyes are completely black, and as he realizes the sky comes falling down on them and it starts all over.

A hand on his shoulder startles him and he turns to see Zane looking at him in concern. "Brother, are you okay?" He asks quietly. They sit next to each other at the dining table, Zane surveying Kai with worried eyes. Kai pauses. He knows that Zane would be the most likely to understand, so he tells Zane. He tells Zane everything about his dream - everything that he can remember, at least - he tells him about the strange girl and the crumbling city, the blood and the screams and the people, and Zane listens. He tells him everything he knows except for the girl's strange eyes and her eerie gaze that dances in the recesses of his mind even then. Zane listens to it all, and as Kai finishes Zane opens his mouth to speak.

He never gets the chance, though.

The entire table has fallen deathly silent and they all look at Kai like he's a ghost, and that's when Kai realizes he has talked louder than he meant to. Everyone just stares at Kai as if they're waiting for him to talk again. It is silent until one of them bursts out with speech and they all start talking, an explosion of babble and talk all directed at him. They all asks him what it means or who she is like he knows. The red ninja's temper threatens to well to the surface, and it does when he slams his palms onto the table and yells _"QUIET_!_" _so loudly that his voice drowns out all the others and they look at him expectantly.

All Kai does is bury his face in his hands and mumble "I need to think," before rising and exiting he room. After a brief pause, Sensei gets up and follows him, quiet footsteps a stark comparison to Kai's loud, angry, ones, Wu's gentle and limber as a feline waiting in the night.

A door slams somewhere on the Bounty and they know it is Kai, and they hear Sensei open that same door just moments later. They hear yelling before it quiets down, and for a long time there is silence in the dining room until Jay clears his throat. "Uh, guys," He says quietly, (which is very different from his regular way of talking) fidgeting with the sleeves of his blue gi. "I hate to break it, but we can't sit around the table all day. We still have to train Lloyd, and ... Nya and I have something to do together." Everyone looks at him; it's usually Cole or Sensei who reminds them of their responsibilities.

Lucky for Jay, Nya's brother (namely Kai) wasn't in the room as Nya nods, lacing her fingers with Jay's and giving him a brief peck on the cheek. "Yes," she concurs, "We do have something planned today, so most likely we'll be out."

After another long moment of silence Cole clears his throat. "Okay," He tells Jay. "You go ahead. Zane and I will train Lloyd today."

Jay nods and Nya smiles hesitantly. "Jay," She asks, turning to her boyfriend. "I want to check on Kai before we leave." The blue ninja nods, giving her a light smile. Nya nods back, leaving the room for somewhere she knew her brother would be.

Her footsteps lead her through the wooden hallways of the Bounty, across the deck, and under to the other side of the ship.

"Nya," He says when she pushes the door open to the training room, where he is pummeling a punching bag. But instead of answering, she gasps and her hand flies up to her forehead, and Nya slides to the ground in a haze of pain and vision. Inches before the floor Kai catches his sister. "Nya, can you hear me?"

She tries to respond, but her lips refuse to part and her eyes refuse to stay open as she is plunged into another world of blood and fire.

* * *

**_Please read, review, and favorite/follow if you want me to continue.  
_**


	2. i saw you

**_Hey! You kept reading. Good for you!  
_**

* * *

_He looks down at his feet, startled to see the ground far beneath the ledge he is standing on. The cliff-top is precariously thin, but Zane stands there without fear all the same, and he raises his crystalline gaze up to glimpse a city, a beautiful city with high walls nestled into the hills beside a lush mountain. The walls are high, casting long shadows in the dying sunset, illuminated by the rich coral hue that reflects in the clouds and fills the sky. It's filled with beauty and color, both the mountain and the city, but in one moment that all changes._

_Fire explodes with a mighty roar, opening its hungry maw to the city, tongues of liquid rock and flame exploding from the mountain and landing among the beautiful city, licking at it within its walls, trapping it, devouring it as he stands far away, shell-shocked. Something moves in front of him, just slightly beneath him and Zane starts. Looking down, he sees a girl below him. She stands on yet another ledge; soot streaks her face and clothes and hair, and when she turns to look at him it's almost like Zane isn't there. She gazes beyond him, away from the city, to the night that creeps closer with every second, its arms carrying darkness and light and its skies illuminated with the fire that explodes up now from the city. He knows it is a place she knows well now, and as she turns away it all changes._

_The walls surrounding the beautiful city are charred and blackened, but the sky is now clear with dawn and filled with pale shades of amaranth and persimmon and light clouds drift silently above them. Zane looks down to see she is gone. In the distance, a girl's figure is silhouetted by the morning light, walking towards the burned metropolis. He watches her as she approaches the smoking ruins slowly, and even from the distance he can see her raise an arm to the sky. For what, he is not sure, but as he zooms in with his close-up vision - being a nindroid has its advantages - he barely glimpses her before she dissolves, her form just dissipating in the wind. As the last traces of pale color fade from the place she once stood, a cracking sound fills the air, and even at a distance like Zane's he hears the walls cracking, he sees the stone barrier fold in on itself and great clouds of dust and soot roil up in angry clouds and break apart, as if it was dependent on the girl to stand, lines of fate spun into one thread._

_And it falls._

Zane's icy blue eyes snap open, his pale cherry-blossom-pink lips opening in a silent gasp as he gazes at his surroundings. He is not standing in a burning city, he is not perched on his ledge watching it burn; he sits in the meditation room on the Bounty's Destiny, his legs crossed and hands folded neatly in his lap.

For just a brief moment to Zane, the medium-sized room feels claustrophobic to him. He stands up, pushing the paneled door out of his way and leaves, stepping onto the deck on the Bounty. The cool air blows against his face as the Bounty sails soundlessly through the pale dusk. Zane savors it, enjoying the feel of the chilling breeze when he realizes; he's never been claustrophobic before.

With a sigh, he shakes his head before re-entering the meditation room.

Maybe this time, he won't be disturbed.

* * *

Zane opens his crystalline eyes once more, this time blinking calmly at the sight of the meditation room; no dreams or ominous visions came to him the second time, although he can tell he's meditated for far longer than he intended to. When he had sat down after the first bout of disturbed prowess, he reflects, he'd closed his eyes and found his mind consumed by his strange vision. He'd _felt _what the girl had felt, the love for her city and her care and anguish when it had all fallen down in ashes upon ashes upon ashes, charred heaps of rubble and soot. He'd envisioned himself walking through the wreckage, watching the last of embers gutter and flicker out, all the time wondering how this could _be_ real. It couldn't be real. So why did it feel real, the girl and her love and care for the city and the way he felt?

This could not be real. 346

It is only then that his internal clock kicks in, notifying him with a _ping _soundless to others that it is far past dinner-time and it was his turn to cook. Muting another sigh, he gets up, ignoring the sharp prick of discomfort of his limbs from sitting in his position too long. Zane leaves the meditation room yet another time, where he is greeted by a irritated Cole who notified him it_ was _his turn to cook and no, they didn't need food anymore as Sensei graciously agreed to stop at a pizza-place. The snowy ninja pays Cole no heed at all - which is out-of-character for him - and instead brushes past him to their room, where he proceeds to open his chest-panel and examine each and every one of his switches and wires to ensure there was no malfunction. When he is satisfied, he clicks the exterior panel shut and rises again, this time uncertain of what he means to do.

He realizes doing something has cleared his mind just the slightest, and that is when he becomes aware that the girl on the ledge beneath him, the one with the glassily vacant stare was different from the girl who had vanished into the wind, the walls falling and tumbling down in her wake.

_Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. _Somehow the quizzical nursery rhyme works its way into Zane's quick and clever mind, and his brow furrows in just the slightest as he thinks over the child's chant from a childhood he'd never had. _Ashes_. Similar to soot, similar to the mistily opalescent wisps of fine light the phantom figure by the walls had dissolved into. He can't remember any of her features, just a wispy glow that she radiated, different from the one on the ledge.

The girl he had seen, the girl with soot in her hair and on her face with her glassily vacant stare was someone he knew very well.

Zane gets up suddenly, the floorboards creaking in protest under his feet as he jumps down from the top bunk he had sat on to examine his interior circuts. He ignores their squeak, however, and brushes out the door towards the room of one he'd seen in his vision, one who'd been gone for many hours now.

The sound of his knuckles on wood seems loud in the deathly silence that has presided through the hallway since morning, and the creak of the door seems even louder as it slowly opens. "Zane?" Kai asks, even though he sees the nindroid clearly. Zane nods patiently in response, an unsaid request to enter still hanging in the air. Kai frowns just the slightest. "I don't think so," He says, catching onto the obvious. "She's in a some sort of coma or trance, some sort of delicate phase. I've had to chase Jay away six times in the last ten minutes already." Zane opens his mouth to object, that he has more medical knowledge than the fiery ninja, but Kai cuts him off; but before Kai closes the door on him he catches a glimpse of her face as she rolls over. Nya's expression is serene yet vacantly hollow.

Almost like she's in another world.

* * *

**_I found the ending a bit tricky to do this time, but aside from that, a bit more on OC's._**

**_-they won't show up in this chapter, or the next, but they WILL come. They'll be scattered throughout the story, beginning at chapter six.  
_**

**_R&amp;R, F&amp;F!_**


	3. but it kept falling

**_Uh, here's the third chapter. I had quite a bit of writer's block, so oops? Here goes._**

**_enjoy, ma cherie—  
_**

* * *

_The sound of cracking surrounds Cole as he stands in the middle of what appears to be a city of stone, dust and soot rising in great puffs as the buildings around him crumble with jarring creaks and shrieks of stone against stone, roaring thuds pounding in his ears as he finds it in him to run, turning away to his back and it's all the same, walls and walls and walls tumbling down, trapping him._

_He blinks rapidly to clear away the dust, desperately trying to formulate his plan when a thought crosses his mind - where was everyone else? Cole looks around wildly, but he sees no one in sight, and something about it tells him only he is here. His worries are interrupted, however, when a crackling sound captures his attention and he jumps, turning to see just the tip of a longer finger of fire as it reaches above, leaving a trail of smoke. A scream resonates through the hollow city, and Cole instantly begins running towards the source of the sound, through a maze of caving alleys and crumbling streets, but he sees no one._

_Until a figure streaks by him, just rustling his hair by the wind left in its wake, and something seems familiar to Cole. He starts after the phantom, but is halted by a sharp crack and he jumps back, a sharp slab of stone landing in front of him. He bites back a sigh of relief. If he'd kept on going, he would've been crushed, but a sudden breeze - was it even a breeze? - swishes past him and he looks up to see a feminine figure of light as she slowly approaches him, seeming to hover above the ground as she nears the earth ninja. He can't see the girl well enough through the wall of fire that has flared up from nowhere, but her figure is a faint silhouette as a comet of light and flame streaks out of the mountains, towards him, coming closer, closer, closer ..._

Cole jerks up, lifting his head out of papers and cookbooks. (Yes, cookbooks.) He blinks wearily, his silver-grey eyes flitting around the room until landing on the large, circular window that's in the bridge when it hits him; he's fallen asleep at a table, in the noon-time. Rubbing his forehead, he steads up, trying to figure out what he'd been doing before _that_ happened, but when he tries to recall all he can come up with is ... nothing.

"Cole, are you okay? You seem pretty tired this morning." He looks up, expecting to see Nya at the wheel, but instead Lloyd stands there, bringing the Bounty's safe passage.

"A-am I really that ob-bvio-ous?" He asks, yawning. Cole stretches, and as he hastily clambers to his feet he stumbles forward and knocks the table over, moving with none of the silent grace the ninja usually possess. His muscles ache as he stretches, sending excruciatingly painful _twangs _through his body as he stretches. "Where are the others?" He cracks his neck as he asks this, wincing; Cole's body feels like it's been steamrollered and then trampled by a herd of angry Serpentine.

"Dunno," The child-turned-teenager replies serenely, his voice aligning in an ambient way with the tranquil atmosphere that has prevailed over the Bounty. "They're all doing their own thing. I was bored, so I came up here to practice steering. Might help me with the Ultra-dragon."

_Good luck with that, _Cole thinks with a smile, recalling Lloyd's somewhat disastrous performance in the NinjaBall Run. He pushes the door open with his shoulder, slipping outside onto the deck where the hot noontime sun beats down on him. The earth ninja looks around, expecting to see at least one person up and about, but it's blankly empty. With a sigh, Cole crosses the thick wooden planks and enters the lower deck of the Destiny's Bounty, popping his head in each room. He sees Zane meditating, Jay nervously tinkering, Kai furiously training on the indoor course, but no trace of Sensei. No trace of Nya, either, but she was probably in her room. Kai hadn't let anyone in since yesterday; Cole still has no idea why.

Sure enough, when he passes her room, he hears rhythmic, soft breathing. The thought only briefly crosses his mind on _why _Nya is sleeping in - she never sleeps in - but he dismisses it. However, when he continues to check the Bounty's rooms - he wants to speak with Sensei about that dream - he finds nothing, and as he doubles back he pops his head in the meditation room. "Hey, Zane," He asks the snowy ninja. "Have you seen Sensei?" Zane's crystalline eyes open slowly, and he shakes his head once before closing them again, returning to his meditation.

Cole suppresses a sigh, of what, he's not sure, but he repeats the process with Jay. Well, he attempts to. When he passes the room the blue ninja was working in, he finds that Jay has passed out on his latest invention and has his face buried in a pile of nuts and bolts. At this, Cole's mouth tugs upwards into a smirk; he looks as Cole though he would've when he'd fallen asleep at the table in the bridge. Regardless, he quietly closes the door and continues down the hall. 971

"Kai," he says, leaning into the training room where Kai's still working. "Have you seen Sensei?" Cole pauses. "Or Nya?"

Kai stiffens. "No, I haven't," He snaps back. "And, if you didn't know, Nya's in some sort of coma."

Cole wisely retreats from the training room. "Someone's on a short fuse," he mutters, although he knows it's just like Kai. The fire ninja's words send his mind reeling immediately, though, once he steps recalls the fiery brunet's words. _Nya's in some sort of coma. _At first, Cole was sure he was just kidding in some bad-tempered way, but as he thinks through Kai's words he realises it all aligns.

He brushes that off - not with ease, but he manages as he strides through the Bounty. He needs to find Sensei right now, have a talk of guidance with him, clear his head, before finding some way to help her. He pauses at the bridge's door, his hand still raised in a knock undone when he decides against it. Cole slides through the gap left in the door to ask the only person left who may know where his uncle is - Lloyd - but when he takes a look, the room is strangely empty. The door to Sensei's room, however, is ajar, and as he pokes his head through - he's not really supposed to go in there - he sees Lloyd just gaping, gaping in shock at the floor, where

a broken teapot lies.

* * *

**_R&amp;R._**


	4. and soon you were lost

_Clouds. Grey. Jay raises his head cautiously, removing his knotted hands from over his neck as he slowly straightens his spine to see a charred and crumbling ruin in sharp contrast to the stone city he had seen mere moments earlier, if not only for a few seconds. Billowing clouds, roiling with thunder and crackling with electricity not unlike that of which he commands, drifts over his head, as the occasional roar of the incoming storm echoes through the skies. His sapphire-blue eyes dart warily around the smoking ruin, puffs of dust still adrift and floating and obscuring parts of his vision - which really wasn't helping at the time - as he swiftly scans his surroundings, tensing, preparing to run. His hands flutter briefly behind his back, only to find the absence of his nunchucks, and panic sets in._

_Almost as if an invisible hand had commanded them, the clouds instantaneously roll across the already-dark skies, casting great shadows upon the barren land as fire begins to rain down - how does that happen? Jay wonders - setting the ground alight, blazing clumps of fire and wafting smoke filling the air. Strangely, though, he feels safe in the certain doomsday, and Jay knows he will not be harmed; it's as if an individual, invisible presence - or multiple, perhaps? - shields him from the flames, and when he looks up, he sees an apparition of light floating serenely above him, palms extended. From the pale shape of shimmering light, he makes out long strands of hair and a more feminine figure, determining it is a girl, and he reaches up to touch her form, to see if she's real, but as he does she dissolves._

_He draws his hand back in shock, but it soon fades and he begins walking through the smoke and flame again, beneath the dark skies. Although he can't see his guardian anymore, he can still sense her presence - and another, he realizes. Looking up, he glimpses a slender form alongside another, appearing to be wearing something on his head, and in his subconscious mind he can tell they are familiar. Breaking into a run, he draws nearer to them, and as Jay does he sees black hair and brown eyes, white hair and golden eyes and a straw hat; he yells, but no sound comes out, and they begin to turn away. Their names, on the tip of his tongue, are forgotten, but their faces achingly, achingly familiar, but all he can do is stand and watch as they turn away and the clouds mill above him with angry roars, casting the daylight land into a night of fire, fire, fire ..._

Jay's head jerks up, his blue eyes blinking with a mixture of drowsiness and shock as he sits up straighter, rubbing his eyes with the back of his grease-smudged hand and stretching until his mind draws up the pieces of his dreams again and he stiffens, muscles taut. They are hazy, but his conscious, sharpened by his awakening, slowly stitch together the frazzled pieces. "Nya," he breathes, closing his vibrant blue eyes. "Sensei."

_What were they doing there?_

Unsure, he rises to his feet, stretching out his sore back, aching from hunching over too long, and rub the back of his neck. His fingers tingle as the circulation begins to speed up again in them, and he sighs. Better catch some real sleep, in a real bed, in the real room belonging to the ninja. As his fingers brush the doorknob, he glances back - the retractable wings would have to wait for another day when he was willing to work on them. Go figure.

Stepping outside, closing the door quietly behind him, he yawns and makes his way down the hall to his room. As he passes the hall leading out onto the deck, he pops his head outside and breathes deeply once, twice, thrice, feeling the cool, fresh air flow back into his lungs and his mind becoming more lucid. Jay runs a hand through his auburn hair, over his forehead, before he steps outside. What was the point of trying to sleep, now, when he was wide awake?

He warily steps onto the deck of the Bounty, feeling the cool skyward air and wind blow against his face in a rejuvenating manner, savoring the clarity of mind before he tentatively walks across the deck (the Destiny's Bounty has a certain habit of lurching and swaying in the sky during turbulence). Thankfully, though, he makes it across and slips into the bridge, only to find the screen door to Sensei's room askew and Lloyd and Cole simply standing, gaping, gaping in shock at the floor where fragments of fine blue china lay, the legacy of their sensei in a shattered teapot strewn across the ground.

* * *

The words escape his mouth before he registers them, sentences and phrases jumbled together in a nonsensical mess that somehow brings Kai and Zane running to the room as well, weapons out and poised, before Jay knows it. Only when he notices Zane's cool, calming touch does he snap his mouth shut and take a deep breath, uttering merely one intelligible sentence. "_What happened?_"

In response, it blows up. 666

Kai, blade drawn, yelling; Cole, brow furrowed, plan in-the-making; Zane, systems running, analytics spilling out of his mouth; Lloyd, desperately trying to soothe the commotion; and himself, jabbering away again - at what, even he didn't know. Their voices, blending, rising, in a chaotic turmoil for whoever knows how long, went on, on, _on ..._

"_Silence._"

Strangely, at this, the room indeed falls silent, heads turn, in attempts trying to identify who had spoken. Eyes met eyes, but it was obvious that none of the ninja had said that one, halting word; it wasn't even a masculine voice that had said what silenced. Hearts beating, loud in ears - deafening silence filled the room as they stared at the small point of light pulsating over the broken teapot, shining, contracting, giving out an irresistible tug of curiosity. They simply stare at it as it dissolves into fainter lines of light, a fine weaving twisting, pulling itself together.

In its place hovers the hazy apparition of a young woman, the colors of her hair and skin and dress faded in the vibrant glow of her own presence. Her eyes, eyes masked by pure light, appear to glow white, although the four somehow know those are not her true eyes. She gazes at the ninja, slowly extending her palms in a gesture, a gesture interrupted by Kai. With a mad yell, the hotheaded ninja jumps forward, bringing his blade through her form in a blow so swift and powerful the whistling of air against his sword resonated throughout the room.

Silence met it, but the girl, unfazed, uninjured, simply looks down upon Kai. In the wavering light, she appears timeless, but her voice was not much deeper than a young child's. She tilts her head, giving them a somewhat eerie, disconnected smile that was clearly not genuine. In a gentle wave of her hands, she reappears, again, far closer to the five teenage boys than they would like - mere feet, in fact.

"_Ninja,_" she states, "_I seek your service._"

It was met with a subtle but obvious tensing, hands tightening on handles, blades, hands flying to belts and backs and gripping their weapons, eyes narrowing. The ninja, wary, unsure of the stranger, survey her cautiously. Although she didn't appear as much, they knew better; things weren't always as they appeared. However, none chose to break the standstill of silence; not until Cole steps forward.

In a firm, strong voice, he challenges her. "And why would we work for you?"

The girl tilts her head again, in an inquiring manner lingering on mockery. "_Oh?_" At this, a subtle smirk crosses her face, masking something else - he couldn't quite tell what it was. But, again, he couldn't tell who she was; although the girl did look familiar in some way. Cole brushes it off. She couldn't be trusted - his though was confirmed, too, at her next statement. "_A few people you may care for, ah, may be elsewhere, no? I have ways to bring them back to you._"

Lloyd's emerald eyes, Kai's amber eyes, widen.

"You have Nya!"

"You have Uncle!"

The girl merely nods. "_And I can give them back to you; and you can't give them back to yourselves._" For the first time, she looks at them with scorn and contempt - for what, none of them knew. "_I've had quite enough of your nonsense. I want an answer. What will it be, ninja?_" Her eyes, eyes previously veiled by light, begin to show through, and she brings her hand over her face once, replenishing the heavy mask of the glow before they glimpse her true gaze.

Zane steps forward, a challenge in his cool, velvety tone. "We'll do it," he says firmly before the others could register. "But," he continues. "Tell me, what made you think we would?"

* * *

_**gASP oKAY WHAT DO YOU THINK**_

_**I would appreciate a review or two.**_

_**Oh, and shoutout to the loyal &amp; amazing ABCSonicKirbyWarriors just because. **_


	5. but i promised you—

_The sensation of drowning in water: the sensation of dancing in fire: Lloyd bites his lip to keep from crying out in the utter discomfort, digging his fingernails into his palms and closing his emerald-green eyes in an attempt to battle the nausea—it was futile, but when he opens them warily again he finds the vexations gone. His feet, perched on solid ground, is a great relief to the green ninja, but nothing else is in that moment. As he looks up, he glimpsed the goddess-like deity again, her gaze fixed firmly on him. "Green Ninja," she addresses him formally, but her tone is denouncing and her gaze neutral, lacking of wonder or respect. "This is my trial to you. Shall you pass, you shall be reunited with your team, but shall you fail—well, then you'll see, no?" A slight smile tugs at her lips, a cold, forced smile of formality and mockery._

_Lloyd stands up, squaring his shoulders and glaring defiantly back at her. "Fine, then," he snarls, glancing around. The world, the terrain that stretches out for endless miles until the horizon is a mass, a ruin, a smoldering wreck that reeks like burned flesh and bone, of acrid smoke and things unraveled and fallen, undone. "Is your face, your soul, and your mind as ugly as this world?" he asks suddenly, the sharp-tongued remark jumping out of his lips. The goddess' face, masked by the light into a timeless facade, a generic, indescribable charade, moves again as it twists into—not an ugly—but far from beautiful expression, her glowing eyes narrowing and her lips pressed together in a cool line, like a vain attempt to smile and scowl._

_"You don't know, now, do you?" she snaps back at him, her face finally contorts into a snarl—but of pain and loss, not cruelty—that Lloyd doesn't notice, for his eyes are already scanning the horizon. Obviously he is ready for the task, but not to listen or think. She sighs, flicking her hand. In an instant, the strange realm around him morphs into one of a beautiful city, nestled in lush hills beneath an amaranth-and-persimmon sky of dawn. "Run through my City. Make it through, without distractions, before it comes down on you." The goddess turns away, but before she does she takes a final glance at him. "I wish you luck, Hero."_

_With that, the world around Lloyd fades into nothing, a blank white nothing: he steels himself for the water-and-flame sensation but it instantly subsides, leaving him in the middle of the glorious city. "Well," the teenager tries to console himself, "This can't be that hard."_

_He sets off at a rather quick pace, letting his instincts guide him, his feet pushing off against the paved streets—they are paved with so many different things—of bone, of gemstone, of stone, of glass and porcelain and of so many different, different things, so bizarre and different but strangely beautiful. Lloyd closes his viridescent eyes, inhaling deeply to the sweet and tangy, warm and salty, exotically fresh aromas wafting from each and every corner of the strange new city, until he hears voices. Looking up, he glimpses a black scale—a blue scale—a golden scale, a scaly tail—into the full body of a Serpentine general._

_ "Skales?" Lloyd exclaims in shock. __But the bluish snake doesn't reply: instead, he slithers towards him. _

_Instinctively, the blonde spins at him in his tornado of Spinjitzu, but he passes directly through him and emerges being him. Skales didn't take notice—he was hissing commands to his side, to professedly an invisible or imaginary figure—"No, that ssssssshan't work, Ssssssselma,"— until he makes out the palest pink outline of another Hypnobrai soldier, and, behind him, many others. They pass directly through Lloyd, leaving him bewildered, but the soldiers didn't seem to notice at all. The green ninja was utterly disturbed, so, taking to last resort, he runs. 666  
_

_Down the street he, in his wild flight, traverses, not slowing nor taking heed to the glorious empire he travels anymore, until he hears a strangely familiar voice. It wafts out of an open window, and he, intrigued, follows it to the first-story of a building. He glances in the little shutters, and what he sees shocks him: Kai, Jay, Zane, and Cole sit around a television, their golden weapons, GOLDEN WEAPONS, strewn around the room, laughing at some video game. With another start, Lloyd sees the walls and decorations of those of the Monastery—"that can't be right," he says to himself, but as he glances around outside and inside again it's apparent that a paradox is occurring but it is there all the same—and he looks back in again. What were they doing? He was just about to go in and ask until it clicks; their suits look different they still have their golden weapons, and they look far less mature and more arrogant, and as he looks closer their forms and belongings are translucent._

_So he runs, runs in his wild flight and flees what appears to be ghosts of the past._

_He runs._

_Until he hears a set of voices, a set of voices that throw him into furry visions, faded visions of a brown-haired woman and a brown-haired man leaning over him, pride and love in their crimson and emerald eyes, their voices melding as one into an "I love you, Lloyd," and in that instant something inside of him snaps, breaks, for he knows that those voices, those voices over there are people he loved—loves—dearly. But he can't help but run, run, run towards them until he skids to a halt out of breath, a few blocks away in the majestic city—and lo and behold, there he sees them!—gazing out at a young couple, their faces clear of wrinkles and their eyes bright and happy, sitting in a chair and lying on a bed in the middle of the street, forms flickering, the woman holding a small bundle of cloth. "We'll name him Lloyd," she says to the man, and he nods. The woman's lips quirk up into a lovely smile, her olive skin regaining some of its lost color. "Lloyd," she coos. "Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon." With a nod, the man also begins to smile. "Garmadon," she says to him. "Don't you think it's a wonderful name for our little boy?"_

_And Lloyd, despite his new age of being a teenage boy, begins to cry, silent tears streaming down his face from his wide green eyes._

_In that moment, the buildings disappear and in he sees every, every single soul, every apparition so much like and unlike that goddess, all from his life—the boys at Darkley's, young and happy, Wu, Nya, and many more; even the candy shop manager, and he drops to his knees. "What..." he breathes. "What in the world?" But there is no response for him, not until the ground begins to shake, the buildings, appearing again, begin to rumble, and the sky, once the beautiful midway hues of blue and amaranth, begins to darken. Clouds stream over Lloyd's head, converging into one heavyset mass that roils and rumbles with thunder and lightning as fire begins to flare, from the mountain, from the sky, into the city, the putrid scents of burnt flesh and bone and ash drifting towards Lloyd._

_He lifts his head, swiping the sleeve of his green gi over his face, opening his emerald orbs again only to glimpse a bright flash of red—"Kai?" he exclaims, unsure—flapping in the winds, and untidy tufts of brown hair milling about. Upon his back is an intricate golden blade, and he is solid, unlike the city of illusions. Lloyd breaks into a run, towards the red ninja, until he realizes that he isn't getting any closer and that Kai's strange realm bears a stark contrast to his. He stands, facing a dying sunset, watching a lone girl's figure on a ledge. _

_Lloyd opens his mouth to shout to him, but as he does Kai takes a step and vanishes, appearing a few moments later with his back to the falling sun, gazing at the strange girl with amber eyes, amber eyes clouded with curiosity. The fire ninja reaches out, tentatively, with a hand, but as he does the girl turns suddenly to look at Lloyd's part of the fallen city, looking at Lloyd, looking through Lloyd as if he wasn't there. Her lips are parted slightly, but she as she watches the flaming city tears begin to roll down her face and drip down her chin, and her mouth opens, as if to say something, but then she screams. She screams out of pain and loss, all the while the fire, the soot, the ash, raining down, down, down, the legacy drifting, drifting, drifting away._

_And it rains. As it does, the girl, the girl and Kai vanish, their sunset vanishing, replaced by more of the flaming city._

_With a shocked gasp from his own lips, Lloyd stares at the spot they disappeared at for a moment before turning away. His heart beats loudly, echoing in his ears, but he ignore it. Shifting his feet, he realizes he can move to places again and at once takes off in a fast sprint, away from where he stood. As he runs, he hears a creaking and many thuds, and he looks back to see the place where he stood falling in, into itself. Lloyd turns his head back towards his path when he glimpses a patch of clear ground, and beyond that, a cliff-top, close to the mountain. Upon that perches a slender figure dressed in white, and with a closer look he takes a stab at who they are. "Zane?" the green ninja whispers in surprise._

_Suddenly, he feels his feet, his legs, stop and snap to the ground, his body immobilized as he watches Zane. His movements are graceful and lucid, and his composure gentle but alert, tensing more as something in front of the white ninja moves, turning to look at him—it's a girl, a petite girl with short black hair and a dirtied red dress, but as she turns to look at him their background changes and she vanishes. The dark sky behind him is replaced with the one of a beautiful persimmon dawn, identical to the one Lloyd witnessed upon his arrival. As it shifts, morphs, so does the outer part of the city, the beautiful bordering walls, undamaged by the flames, cracking; the city, once smoldering, changes into one of a charred ruin. A girl, another girl, stands, watching the remains, and she raises her hand to the sun for a brief moment before dropping it back to her thigh. Her form dissipates almost instantly, and as it does, the walls, the buildings, crack, crack, crack, the walls, the walls, tumbling, tumbling, tumbling down._

_And it falls. As it does, the girl and Zane vanish, their dawn vanishing, replaced by more of the flaming city._

_Backing up, Lloyd turns and runs, runs, runs so he will not get caught in the next phenomenon, the next fluke. His breaths come in short, ragged, gasps, but he pushes on, running at maximum speed away, away from the strange sites and away, away from what he saw. He wasn't sure how long he had ran, only that he had cleared a great distance; Lloyd allows himself to stop, to heave breaths of smoky air into his burning lungs. When he raises his head again, straightening his spine, he glimpses a flash of gold from a scythe's blade, the stone towers that signify the urban area of the city, a flicker of shaggy black hair as a lithe, muscular boy dressed in black flashes past him. "Wait!" the green-eyed ninja calls out, but the teen doesn't: he continues to run at his mad pace, twisting out of sight. Lloyd starts after him, slowed by his fatigue, but even so he finds himself slowly closing the distance. "Cole!" he calls. "Wait! Wait!"_

_Out of nowhere, the black ninja halts, jumping back as a deafening crack sounds and a large slab of stone slams down in front of him. Great puffs of soot and dust float up as more buildings crack, slowly crumbling, crumbling into pebbles and rocks. He lets out a faint sigh of relief, only to stiffen again as heavier, louder cracks echo through the half-destroyed plaza, the very earth shaking, flames billowing up from whichever way. Fire, fire explodes from the mountains and ground, falling down, down from the sky and setting what he knows alight. Cole yelps, jumping back as a ball of flame careens mere yards away from him, but as the black ninja begins to relax again faint footsteps carry to him through the commotion and he narrows his eyes, glimpsing a feminine shape striding towards the Master of Earth through the smoke and flame._

_And it is lost, again, as a mass of fire as big as the sun begins falling, falling, falling, closer, closer, closer ..._

_White, faded white, filled his vision, but at once it quickly cleared to leave Lloyd standing in more city, more smoldering, burning city. He sighs a weary sigh; his legs and arms ache, and each breath in through his lungs is like a thousand daggers into his chest. Without his permission, his knees give way, and he catches himself on his hands—the dirt and gravel, the burning embers, send searing pain through his palms but he refuses to care, closing his green eyes and taking deep, deep breaths trying to regain his equilibrium. The world spins around him, so dizzily that Lloyd feels as if he will be sick. But as soon as it strikes him, it vanishes, fresh energy flowing through his limbs as he hauls himself to his feet, only to glimpse another, another young man in an electric-blue gi rise as well, his auburn hair ruffled slightly in the winds. The teenager's sapphire eyes are both wary and curious, a look belonging to only one ninja: Jay._

_Jay it is, as he turns his head rapidly from side to side as he sees the dark clouds that billow menacingly across the skies in critical turmoil, their depths harnessing the thunderous tremors and crackling electricity of the blue ninja's element. His head turns in several directions, one after the other, out of curiosity—and probably some other reasons—but it is satisfied by the queer occurrence that follows it; fire—or perhaps not so much to Lloyd. The green ninja decides he has seen enough flames for one day, but it doesn't stop him from watching in horror and bated breath as clumps of flame begin pelting down around Jay, but the blue ninja doesn't seem to be disturbed. Instead, he seems merely intrigued, raising a hand to touch something nonexistent above him—only does when Lloyd squint his emerald eyes does he see a ripple in the air, a shimmering shape that vanishes in a mere second, and the blue-eyed ninja withdraws his hand to look off into the distance only to glimpse something that makes him start. The green ninja, too, narrows his eyes, and what he sees shocks him._

_But it is lost, once more, as the dark clouds swamp the daylight land, drawing it in to a night of fire, fire, fire ..._

His lips, parted, let out a stifled gasp; his eyes, viridescent eyes, flutter open; his spine straightens and he sits up to find the concerned faces of four ninja staring back at him. Lloyd rubs a hand over his bleary eyes, but that isn't needed—sharp, cool winds bite at his cheeks, startling him and waking him up. He stretches his taut muscles, examining his limbs to find the absence of the many scratches and burns he acquired throughout his ordeal, only to find them gone; the sharp, throbbing pains still remain to his discomfort. His gaze is still slightly blurred, but his mind is lucid enough to comprehend their foreign surroundings.

"Guys ..." he mumbles, his voice muted and further stripped away by the vicious gales of wind. "I don't think we're in Ninjago anymore."

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**If anyone got the reference, bless ye soul.**


	6. that if you lost yourself—

**_Sixth chapter, up! I apologise for accidentally deleting this chapter—I didn't notice until now, when I finished it.  
_**

**_Please review when you're done, and leave a like or follow!_**

**_I will announce the code openly in this chapter, so look around!_**

* * *

His arms tremble in the slightest as he raises himself up off rocky, dusty ground, his lungs quivering just a bit as he draws in a ragged inhalation. Lloyd raises his green eyes to look up at his four mentors, and sees in their expressions that they realize he's right—there's just _something _in the air, he senses it, and he knows the others do to, that it's not home anymore. They're not _home_ anymore.

"You're right, kid," Cole muses as he offers Lloyd a hand, calloused fingers hoisting him off the ground and onto his feet. "I don't think we are." His thick eyebrows furrow together, jaw clenching as he surveys the lands around them, but then his face goes slack, jaw dropping as he takes it in, and Lloyd can see the other ninja's expressions do the same—they are situated on a high spire, dropping steeply off into a flat, rolling land on four sides; one that is decorated with the fierce shades of fire and light, rich oranges and reads, a dash of coral and the glints of gold; and, in the center of it all is a palace of the sun in all its majesty, with sharp angles and glints of light, precious gemstones inlaid in stone and fine grains that seem to be the _very essence _of dawn. The skies above it are absolutely cloudless, celestial and divine, a thousand specks of light beating rays of a million suns down on the very ground.

To the opposite side, the west, is a rich, rolling series of hills much like the east—but that is where the similarities end. A rich scent wafts faintly from that direction, a pure, earthy smell that is moist and hints of morning mist and dew in the dawn, and its terrain does not disappoint, either. Lush green and earthy tones embellish the trees, shimmering dew on wide fern and soft moss hanging down from trees so tall they brush the skies above it. Shining specks of light, little fireflies and mysterious creatures unseen in Ninjago drift about, winking and flashing, and a light cover of clouds hang above—yet instead of a daylight morning they barely conceal a night sky, a deep, mysterious color that is beautiful and unknown. A thousand stars wink at him, coaxing him in.

A cool breeze wafts by, and Lloyd turns his head to the north. Like the two realms before, it possesses the rolling lands, but it is stunningly individual all the same—it is frozen in a light, pristine spectrum of delicate light and quiet beauty, spires of ice hanging down from the trees and frozen rivers and waterfalls immobilized into a prism of multicolored light. Hues of pale blue and faint violet, flashing white and flashing bright, emblazon the ethereal scape and a sharp, crisp smell of mountain wind wafts on occasional drafts coming their way. A faint, fine powder drifts down from the pale, silver-lined clouds, dusting it all in a delicate sheen of alabaster and a strange, surreal light that does not tell whether it is night or day.

His breath almost hitches in his throat as he turns in anticipation to look at the final land—it is all too beautiful, he considers—and it does not disappoint. Its rolling hills are aids to tall, tall spires of rock with chunks of precious stone hidden in between, and below, nestled in the foot of hills, are structures made of delicate, paper-like materials and curved domes of stone and glass, wood and fabric, put together in a glorious work of art that reminds him of the skies. It is of deep, majestic hues and shades, royal purple and midnight blue with the brightest of whites and golds, silvers and bronzes that are simply dubbed as celestial (Lloyd finds it impossible to describe.) The night skies above are mostly clear, speckled with light from a billion stars of a thousand unfamiliar galaxies and faraway suns and moons, gentle comets with long, pristine tails and falling stars that simply _beg _to be wished upon. It takes away his breath.

He looks at the four ninja in excitement, anticipation—he wants to visit one of those glorious lands, _any_ of them, really, only to find the four staring off in four different directions, each entranced by one land or another.

Kai breaks the silence first. "Let's go to _that _one," he exclaims, pointing east towards the lands of the sun.

Jay shakes his head. "No way, dude! It's totally gotta be that one," he points south, towards the place where the sky meets the ground.

"I disagree," Zane announces. "I believe we should go to that one." The nindroid indicates to the frozen north.

"I think we should go _there_," Cole finally puts in. He gestures towards the forests of the west.

Lloyd frowns. He's about to tell them they shouldn't be so stubborn, looking after only their own interests, but as he opens his mouth someone else interrupts him.

"Are ye' gonna stand there all day?" The newcomer snaps, crossing her arms. The ninja all jump, whipping over to look at her—she's not too tall, really, with wild red hair that looks utterly uncontrollable and fierce as fire that brushes her shoulders; it frizzes around her tanned, freckled face in a spontaneous halo. Her lips are set into a pout, clever dark brown eye(s) glaring in her darkened face and her arms crossed over her chest. A miniaturized bow-and-arrow set hangs over her left shoulder, and her right eye is bandaged along with her right shoulder. She appears to be about thirteen—and also very, very, very pissed off. "Milady sent m' here to fetch one of ye', but ah've been waitin' here for twelve of these min'nutes and all ye've been doin' is gawkin' 'round!" She stomps her foot for effect, and over her shoulder her pet hisses. It's a fairly cute creature by Lloyd's standards, with velvety fuchsia fur and pretty, preachy spots along with sky-blue eyes, but as it hisses at them from the girl's shoulder it also looks fairly fearsome.

She suddenly pauses, before closing her eyes and taking a deep sigh. "Alrigh', Miito, it's fine."

"'tis not, Rye," the creature chastises her. Lloyd does a double take—he didn't know the creature could talk, but again (he thinks back to his visions; new world, new rules). "Milady would be horribly cross if she found out what rude statements you just made."

Rye frowns. "Milady would b'e _horribly cross _if she had t' meet these rude visitors."

At this point, Cole loudly clears his throat. "Uh, so what exactly are you here for?"

The girl whips around, glaring darkly at the Earth Ninja. "Milady sent me t' fetch-ya, ah told ye already!" She spits. "She wants ye all to meet her messengers as Sixth World ambassadors at th' gates to the Empire of th' Sun." She points east, down below the spire, at a set of shimmering golden gates embellished with fiery gems. "O' course, if che'all wanna slaunder 'round that's fine by me, but don' say ah didn' warn ye!" With that, Rye stomps off, towards a set of stone stairs that Lloyd didn't even notice. "Ye can come if ye wanna!" She shouts grumpily over her shoulder.

They exchange glances—what do they have to lose?—before heading after her, Kai in the lead. "Wait up!" He yells after Rye. She pauses her stomping and turns around, looking Kai in the eye (and flushing a bit).

"Have ye changed ye mind?" She asks dubiously, raising an eyebrow. They nod. "Alrigh, then, come wi' me. Milady's embassy will meet us at th' gates."

With that, the fire-haired girl begins making her way down the stairs. Lloyd looks over the edge and gulps—he notices how high up they are, but as he looks at Rye confidently striding down the stone steps he sighs. _Better not wimp out, after all_, he thinks as he carefully begins stepping down. Zane observes him quietly.

"I will make sure you do not plummet," he says calmly to Lloyd in his velvet voice. "I assure you of that." The green ninja nods faintly.

Strangely enough, Zane's assurance does calm him down a bit, and Lloyd manages the rest of the way down with little trouble—except for the time the rock under his right foot broke off, but hey, that wasn't _his_ fault, right? However, when he finally does step off he cracks a sigh of relief, only for it to morph into a gasp of astonishment as he looks up at the glittering gates. The arched metal is like the embodiment of the sun, simple, massive, twisted into an ethereal pattern that is earthly all the same but impossible to mimic. Gems are plainly inlaid at the base, and two guards stand at each foot of the entrance. It is all simple, reachable, down-to-earth, looking at the design, but majestic all the same in size and beauty. All of it radiates a warm aura—the type one would expect on a mild summer's day, with breezes and a few faint, puffy clouds (although there were clearly none here.)

Lloyd looks at the other ninja—they all look awestruck as well—but as he opens his mouth Rye cuts in. "Ah told ye che'all'd regret it if ye didn' come down here," she says smugly, crossing her arms and tossing back her head in a snide gesture of _I totally told you so._

But before any of them could respond, a new voice interjects.

"Ah, Rye, didn't I say not to harass the Ambassadors?" The speaker asks. "After all, I believe they are important people."

They all jump, Rye included, looking over through the Gates, to see a tall figure striding towards them. Several people accompany her, although none of them are clad as beautifully—the speaker is a woman, with dark mocha skin that is accompanied by long, viciously curly tresses of raven hair that rival Rye's in frizz. Upon her head is a laurel of gold, precious stones dangling by platinum chains, and she wears a dress of simple ivory with a chain of bronzed links strung around her waist. Gold bands clasp her arms and ankles, and a necklace of beaded shells rests on her chest. Her eyes are wise, kind, but they suggest that she should not be messed with, for she gives off the aura of a warrior even when passive. Lloyd can't tell exactly how old she is—but there are wrinkles around her eyes and her hands and limbs are littered with old scars.

Yet even so, the tall, dark woman looks timeless.

"I am Aberassh," she tells them, "but I prefer the title Queen Ade." Seeing their skeptical faces, the Queen chuckles, a deep, throaty sound that is contagious and genuine. "Our naming traditions here may not resemble yours," she tells them, eyes twinkling. "Not at all."

Zane is the first to notice Rye kneeling on the ground, and he quickly mimics her, the other ninja following suit. "I believe I speak for all of us when I say this," the Ice Ninja begins. "It is an honor to meet you."

The dark-skinned woman smiles, golden eyes twinkling—Lloyd notices that they resemble a cat's, feline, with the pupil quite a bit more elongated that a circle, but he dismisses it as the Queen gestures for them to rise. "My pleasure," she says warmly. With that, she begins to walk again, golden gladiator-style sandals flopping against the golden sand that seems to shimmer faintly in the glow of the million lights in the sky, her embassy following her. Rye rises as well, sprinting after her until she reaches her ruler's side where the dark-skinned amazonian ruler smiles down at her.

Rye looks overjoyed as she returns with a toothy grin, before lapsing into a cacophony of bright, eager chatter that absolutely brims with eagerness, hopping up and down on the balls of her feet and waving her arms enthusiastically; her voice is chipper and bright, and her narration wholehearted as she chattered away to the Queen with a strange familiarity that left Lloyd scratching his head once or twice. Occasionally, the Queen or another member of the embassy would speak, becoming more and more frequent, until it was a friendly banter between all the members of the group ahead of Lloyd. A look at his fellow teammates told him they felt the same as he: unsure of whether to join in or not, and having trouble comprehending their rapid speech.

Suddenly, they pause, and Lloyd stumbles a bit as he halts his steps. Jay catches one of his arms, pulling him up with a quick _"easy, kid," _before giving him a little push forwards. As he does, the embassy steps aside, and all at once they turn to face the ninja. The Queen smiles.

"Visitors," she announces with a regal sweep of her battle-scarred arm, stepping aside as she does so, "I present to you the East Kingdom."

They look beyond the Queen, but before any of them can react, Ade adds with a warm laugh, "And with formal greeting, I welcome you to the Empire of the Sun."

* * *

_**MowsTrap;; as you can see, I have pushed back Rye's age, altered her appearance, and changed a snippet of her behaviors to match her age. The name of her pet, Mewtwo, has been changed to Miito (pronounced mee-toe) to align with the circumstances in the story. Her personality has been altered to a more realistic view to align with the backstory—which, the one you wrote for her does not match up with this dimension's circumstances, so I have changed it to correspond. Instead of choosing to depict her as a "**__**PAST PERSONALITY: was a joker, loved to talk and play pranks./ PRESENT PERSONALITY: Has a temper, doesn't talk much and keeps to herself.( she is also very intelligent for her age she know stuff that only college people or professors know reasons as ro why she isnt in school she graduated high school at 13)", I have opted for a short-tempered, socially awkward young teenager who tries to be mature but often winds up tripping over herself on the surface, while under that, like with the Queen and her familiars, she tends to be more enthusiastic eager. I assure you the Rye you have submitted WILL be the one this Rye becomes—you needn't worry.  
**_


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